I always told Ruth Wingfield of Arlington that she was the oldest citizen of my Watchdog Nation.

I met her when she was 98. She accidentally wrote a check to her insurance company for $480 when she meant to write $4.80. The company was in no hurry to give her money back. Read that Watchdog Nation report here.

I taught her what to tell banks and insurance companies when they hurt her. Forever after, she shouted into her phone: “Who regulates you? I’m going to file a complaint.”

Ruth Wingfield, at her 100th birthday party, and the dude she called "Dogpatch Guy"

Are you tired of fighting the bank, the credit card company, the electric company and the phone company? They can be worse than scammers the way they treat customers. A popular book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author is The Watchdog columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber